According to the Transportation Department website, LaHood’s entire career has been spent on government payrolls; he has no business experience of any kind. Perhaps that explains his fatuous notion that Spirit, a for-profit company in a fiercely competitive industry, can jack up its fees without regard to customer reaction.

Data are fine things; I’ve devoted much of my professional life to their examination and analysis. Yet it behooves all of us to realize that data may sometimes clothe madness or veil inhumanity, and to beware the power of numbers to lull us into an immoral sleep.

In an industry dominated by government subsidies, here’s an inspiring story of a small farming business that has excelled for 25 years without a dime from the government. In fact, the day I called them to propose doing the video, they had – that day – coincidentally met with a Department of Agriculture bureaucrat who was encouraging them to apply for a $4,000 grant. If we win the video contest, we’re sharing the winnings with them, and they will explicitly use the money instead of the $4,000 grant.